PRE-MATCH QUIPS: Pune revitalized; Mumbai strengthened by the pack of four

The second Maharashtra derby of the season is set to take place at the Mumbai Football Arena tonight and both teams will be keen to grab a win. Mumbai won the previous derby and will look to top the table while Pune will want to claim back-to-back wins to ensure a spot in the the play-offs.

Speaking to the media at the pre-match conference, Mumbai coach Alexandre Guimaraes spoke on the team's objective for the remainder of the season and said,

"I think we have to continue to do what we have been doing. Well, I mean we took good points against very tough teams in away games and now it is time to play these final games at home [four home games out of five remaining], and we have got to maintain and continue winning at home, to get closer to our objective of being in the top 4."

Pune coach Habas declared that the victory over ATK has revitalized the Stallions and they will look to grab 3 crucial points in their bid to make the play-offs.

“After the match [against ATK] our group is a good group… The players are ready and after the game against ATK, the group is fantastic and we know Mumbai beat us in the first match in Pune, so we will try to beat them tomorrow. We know it is difficult but we will try,” said Habas.

Habas went on to emphasize the importance of dominating in attack and defence against Mumbai and said,

“That is my style and my team needs to adapt, so we will try to find a balance between defence and attack. Since we want to win, we need to score more. And my style is to keep running up and down, we need to keep the balance and it is not good if one team is scoring a lot of goals and conceding a lot of goals. It is important to dominate defence and attack."

Guimaraes shared his thoughts as Mumbai are on the verge of booking a play-off spot.

“Tomorrow, we are going to play a derby and in a derby you never know what is going to happen. The other team, as we know, has had a change in their approach and they know that they cannot lose.The only thing we think about is the next three points and then we will see all these possibilities of points. We cannot go too much into these possibilities of points right now.”

Elaborating on the their attack, Pune coach Habas said,

“Except Delhi, the other teams’ scores have been 1-1, 1-0 or 2-1, so the scores have been very similar. I think all the teams have similar problems and we will try to improve but it is a very competitive league and it is very difficult for our strikers to score.”

Guimaraes was glad to welcome the Bengaluru FC pack of four and went on to say,  

“All of them trained yesterday and no one told me about being unable to play. So, it is up to me to see who is going to play and all of them are working hard without any complaints. Let’s see who plays tomorrow. They are really hungry to be part of the Mumbai City FC campaign,”

Speaking on player availability for the derby, Pune coach Habas said,

“We have two injuries in Arata [Izumi] and Pitu [Comadevall] and the rest of the team is fit for the game,”